Friday, June 12, 2009

The Contrite Chipmunk

Hazel Blears has never heard of the dictum "Never apologise, never explain". Her words of apology for the way she handled her resignation this morning are, I am sure, spoken from the heart, but the effect they will have is to ensure that she never again returns to frontline politics. It's a bit like Stauffenberg apologising for putting the briefcase under the Fuehrer's table in 1944. The bomb went off and he emerged damaged but able to carry on. Stauffenberg lost his life, Blears has lost her career.

62 comments:

She has been got at by the Stalinistas, it reminds me of a show trial. This pathetic creature has been bullied into doing this, and this saya a lot about Browns methods of staying in power. It also shows you who runs Britain, all Dark Arts, spin, thuggery etc. Please Please give us back our democracy.

Not just her career but her credibility. She has been threatened and destroyed by the machine. Apologise or lose your seat. Remember Mandelson is in control now. Get in line, be on message and you can have your seat. Who will be next to apologise? I know you like her Iain but her true colours have now been shown. Fiddled expenses and now a loss of moral fibre...

Surely Bill Quango is correct here. Having resigned to concentrate on getting re-elected (so we were told), she's realised that the local Labour voters are mightily irritated with her and this apology is designed to win some of them back.

So many different and inconsistent stories have bene circulated about the WAGS and whether there was a conspiracy that it's impossible to fathom what really went through the minds of Blears, Flint and the rest. But one thing must be clear by now: each of them has the judgment of a pile of turnips and this sort of pathetic back-pedalling just emphasises the fact.

She was right to apologise, if only for the simple reason that do what she did within forty eight hours of Polls being open for the County/Euros, was unhelpful for Labour candidates across the country. I appreciate that is exactly why some Tories and Lib Dems rejoiced in her actions but as a Labour Party member she should have at least shown consideration to grassroots support by being aware of the timing of her comments!

She had no interest in the Labour grassroots. It is only now she is realising as she going back to the nitty gritty local politics that she needs those grassroot activists to support her. No special advisers, no civil servants appointed to her. Just her, her agent and alot of grovelling. I still have a question though? £13,000 just like that? How did she manage to get that kind of cash? She wasn't playing the system was she?

She is a lawyer and can build a career outside politics unlike many of her colleagues. She should have stood by what she said and if she is deselected, she should stick two fingers up to Gordo and Lord Sleaze, and leave politics alltogether to concentrate on Law practice. She must have had some idea of what other Blairites were up to and thought that Brown would go. But these Blairites had other ideas. Millipede, postman and the gang have no shame and they are double-crossing low lifers which she should have known.

And that one word 'career' says it all. If our MPs are careerists it's only natural to put career before duty. That is why it is essential that they are encouraged to have their careers ring fenced from their Westminster duties - and I use the word duties very deliberately.

Remember guys, she is a politician. She will want to "draw a line under this issue soon and talk about what the people really want". Has she killed her career? All I can say to you is Mandelson.........

She is up for reselection and faces the prospect of being dumped by her local branch. She was nasty, disloyal to the government, and most importantly, to the Labour Party. She failed to bring Broon down and is looking at the consequences. Of course she is sorry - sorry that she was found out.

"From the heart"? Doubtful. Sorry about the consequences of her actions? Well yes. If you try to shoot someone but the gun backfires and blows your hand off, leaving you at the mercy of your enemy, you are probably sorry you pulled the trigger. Not really sorry your enemy might have been destroyed if things has gone better though.

Blears' actions did not discredit her, but her apology does so absolutely.

Little doubt in my mind that had Brown been ousted she'd be cheering and demanding a place in cabinet. If you lose, best to do so with dignity. She'd have been better off saying Brown's still a useless loser and the election results have proved it.

Something changed in the music that trickled from the telescreen. A cracked and jeering note, a yellow note, came into it. And then -- perhaps it was not happening, perhaps it was only a memory taking on the semblance of sound -- a voice was singing:

'Under the spreading chestnut tree

I sold you and you sold me --'

The tears welled up in her eyes. A passing waiter noticed that her glass was empty and came back with the gin bottle.

.......

O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of her nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. She had won the victory over herself. She loved Big Brother.

Whenever I've had the misfortune of hearing her on the box she's always been reciting insanely optimistic all-is-for-the-best-in-this-best-of-all-possible-worlds gibberish with an idiotic fixed grin on her silly face.

This peculiar public "apology" and recanting of her sins is, oddly enough, the only time she's ever sounded approximately normal.

Are we watching events unfold or are we watching Patrick McGoohan's 'Prisoner' ?On the weekend we saw Gordon Brown cheered and lauded ecstatically by Labour activists - reminded me of the election episode, 'Free For All'. Now Hazel Blears baffling apology after 'aversion therapy' is straight from episode 'A change of mind'. She was probably chased by a weather balloon. Mandelson is definitely 'Number One'.

Horrible little lawyer liar, now that the flame is under her ass she is contrite.Obviously facing the wilderness if her local party do the correct thing and boot her. What has happened to the media campaign on expenses now that the witch hunt on Broon has failed.Read Telegraph online. Osborne has flipped his homes and Regwood charged the same £3000 twice for home decoration, and many many more. I think we should be told

Goodbye Hazel. Your government has done all it can to destroy the solicitors profession, by allowing non-lawyers to own law firms after 2011. There will be no future for you there. Perhaps you can turn to your old mate and benefactor, Anthony Bailey. Husband of Princess Marie Therese Von Hohenburg 'of Austria'. You could join his PR company and work for the Syrians amongst others.

Newsnight tonight had a lot on Chipmunk tonight, partly because they had Jan Ravens along plugging her show along with Isaby, Huq and Littlewood (4.08-16.32) You'll enjoy it Iain if it's still up when you're back.

I liked Littlewood's line about "if this is steadying the ship, God help us when it's holed under the waterline". And all Huq could say was "move along now, there's nothing to see here, this is all ancient history". You just wish some of the Labour talking heads would have the gonads to face reality, they'd have so much more credibility. I guess the only people still prepared to go on TV and defend Labour are the handful of true believers left in the bunker. It just makes them look worse, like the laughter at Hain on QT. In fact I wonder if that's the best route open to us, we just cackle loudly every time they try the "all under control, Gordon saved the world" line.

It's a bit like that focus group they had on Newsnight Thursday (from 29.15), people still prepared to admit to having voted for Labour on national TV. Scary really.

Incidentally, I didn't have Kirsty Wark down as being particularly catty, but her verdict on Milliband of "bit pathetic" at 3.52 tonight was withering, in reference to his dither about resigning on election day. Just one of those little moments that make you sit up.